VMC chief tried in absentia

Vadodara, April 27: They are at it again, and all in one go. Drawing from their inexhaustible ability to criticise, city fathers on Monday u...

Vadodara, April 27: They are at it again, and all in one go. Drawing from their inexhaustible ability to criticise, city fathers on Monday used the floor of the General Board of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation to take Municipal Commissioner Vilasini Ramchandran to task. Of course, in absentia.

For municipal councillors, irrespective of party affiliations, the absence of the commissioner at the general board meeting seemed to take precedence over public works and they spent one and a half hours criticising her for this. Ironically, they said that civic administration and public works suffered for want of the Commissioner8217;s presence.

On noticing that the Commissioner was not present at the meeting, Congress leader in the General Board Kanchan Parmar moved a resolution criticising this, which was immediately picked up by all and sundry among the councillors. Congress8217; Satyajit Gaekwad, Chirag Jhaveri and Dalsukh Prajapati, and Chandrakant Srivastava, Ghulam Chasmawala and Aziz Dangiwala from the Opposition all had something to say against the Commissioner. Mayor Ratilal Desai and Deputy Municipal Commissioner General I B Pirzada, representing Vilasini Ramchandran, explained to the members that the Commissioner had to be present at the Gujarat High Court in Ahmedabad for an urgent matter. The councillors, now supported by BJP leader in the Board Maganbhai Desai, and his colleagues Pravin Patel and Bhupendra Patel, scoffed at the explanation.

One of them pointed out that the Commissioner had been attending office till 3 p.m. and wondered whether the High Court would be open by the time she reached there. This found support from the Congress members. They pointed out that the Commissioner had not been attending past several General Board meetings.

However, Maganbhai Desai had one statement to make in the Commissioner8217;s favour, when he said that some of those who criticised her had vested interests. Soon, however, he changed tack and stated that this should not be the reason for the Commissioner to be absent from the meetings so regularly. Gaekwad reminded the Mayor that it was the BJP8217;s own minister Jaspal Singh who had recently lambasted the Municipal Commissioner and the Police Commissioner, but the very government was unable to make the administrators more conscious of their responsibilities.